Moving Mountains
by Dark wolf's last day
Summary: In some other universe, Archie and Maxie still start out on the same team like in another, but things happen differently, and the two of them end up working together to accomplish their goals. Though, how high are their ambitions and what consequences might they have? Rated M because of...some future plans I might have. As always I take liberties with Pokemon towns.
1. Chapter 1

First of all, let me say that I am REALLY EXCITED about this fic.

Secondly, I have a few things that I'm going to say for clarification in these notes.

It's mentioned in Omega Ruby by a nameless Team Magma grunt that Archie and Maxie used to be on the same team. It's pretty much directly stated in both Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire that ORAS and RSE take place in different universes, so, going off of that idea, this story takes place in /another/ different universe.

Also, when I take about Beval and his daughter, Winona, I am indeed talking about the Winona who is the leader of Fortree's gym. In this story, Beval has the gym before Winona, and she takes up the place as the leader of it later on.

I think at this point (or at least in the first few chapters because I don't know /exactly/ where I'm going with this story yet) that May and Brendan haven't been born yet, in fact their parents might not have even met yet. I'm kind of going off Archie being around 19 and Maxie being around 21 at the start of this story, going off of my personal thought that the two of them are in their early to mid thirties when you meet them in game.

In the first chapter there's a non-linear time skip between the first section and the second section, just so no one is confused!

* * *

"Pacifidlog town?" Maxie asks incredulously, "I never thought that anyone was _from_ there; I thought that people living in Pacifidlog never actually _left_ Pacifidlog."

"Shut up," Archie says, tapping his and Maxie's intertwined hands against the ground, "I thought people from Lavaridge froze whenever they tried to venture away from their home town."

"Oh, no, I am absolutely certain that I would melt you if we ever came together."

"If?" Archie asks, letting go of Maxie's hand so he can position himself over him, "Who's talking _if _we ever '_came together_'?"

"Weren't we supposed to be getting to know each other?"

Archie groans. "Killjoy."

Maxie pushes Archie off of him and intertwines their hands again.

"What's your favorite flavor of ice-cream?" Archie laughs at the question.

"I like cookie dough."

"I like strawberry."

"I can't imagine you liking ice-cream."

"It gets hot in Lavaridge!"

"I'm gonna tell everyone that you like ice-cream."

"I'll tell everyone that you like Lava Cookies."

"I only know that I like them because you gave me some!"

"Mmhmm."

"Maaaaxxxxiiieeeee!"

"Yes?"

"Fuck off." Maxie snorts.

—

It's rather intimidating, the team base is. For one thing, it's dimly lit; the team admins look like faceless monsters, which, actually, might be intentional, all things considered. One admin points a finger at a young, new recruit and says, "You! You'll be bunking with him!" pointing at another new recruit, this one scrawnier than the burly recruit first pointed at, to articulate who 'him' is.

The two new recruits, Archie and Maxie as they are called, walk away from the main room of the base once they are given their room number. The sound of the room turns into a low rumble then fades to nothing as the two walk farther and farther away. Both had been given keys to the room they had been assigned, but it is Maxie who ends up sliding his key into the key slot once they get to their room.

Two other grunts are already in the room when they step inside. "Hey!" One says, "Some bodies to fill these beds!"

"Did anything in particular happen to the bodies that used to fill these beds?" Archie asks.

"Oh, yeah," The other says, "they died. It was really brutal; there was a lot of blood."

"I'm sure," Maxie says.

The other two grunts seem to lose interest after this, leaving Archie and Maxie to actually introduce themselves to each other and decide on which bunk bed each of them will be getting.

"The top bunk might seem nice, but if you have to pee in the middle of the night, it fucking sucks," The grunt sitting on the top bunk of the other bunk bed says.

"Yeah, a buddy of mine broke his leg by rolling off of one."

"I accept the challenge," Maxie says.

"Challenge? It's a fucking bunk bed!" Archie says.

There's not very much space in the room, so Maxie and Archie resolve to leave the majority of their things in their suitcases; the two other grunts, Greg and Joseph as Maxie and Archie have learned now, have used up most of the cabinet space already anyway.

Maxie reads until the late hours of the night, aided by a small flashlight that he had brought along with him. Maxie thinks his roommates are asleep, but Archie is quite awake, and he listens to the flutter of turning pages for hours until he falls out of consciousness.

—

Neither Archie nor Maxie ever would have guessed it when they first saw each other, but they work together very well. As new grunts, the two of them are most commonly assigned to guard duty, but, at least in their minds, they perform exceptionally well as guards.

"Hey," Maxie not-quite-whispers on his and Archie's first guard duty assignment, "don't you have a Carvanha?"

"I do," Archie says, furrowing his eyebrows together in thought, "you have a Numel, right? So, together, we've got a pretty solid type matchup for whoever's challenging us."

"That's exactly what I was getting at," Maxie says, smiling just the slightest.

The mission that they are tagging along on on this particular instance is rather low-key, so the only trouble Archie and Maxie face is a store owner with only a Wurmple to battle with. Maxie's Numel has the poor Pokemon knocked out in little time at all. After the battle, the store owner calls the Wurmple back into its Pokeball and rushes away.

"Up top!" Archie says so easily as if Maxie isn't a know-it-all nerd. Maxie thinks that, maybe, here, he isn't.

"A high five?" Maxie asks, like the concept is foreign to him.

"Yeah, hard ass. Unless you're worried about your uppity nerd persona being tarnished." Maxie rolls his eyes and gives Archie a high five.

—

As it turns out, other people notice how well Archie and Maxie work as a team as well. During one mission, an admin notices how Archie tells Maxie, quickly, "Be careful! I saw someone that way!" and how Maxie distracts someone prowling around the building with a Pokemon battle so that Archie can take what the team came there for.

"You two," The admin barks after they are all out of the way of anyone who might be looking to call the police on them, "you work together nicely. I'll be sure to tell the leader about it." Maxie and Archie give each other twin looks of excitement and nervousness.

—

"Arceus, I fucking _hate_ this."

The tall grass covering the routes surrounding Fortree rubbing against Maxie's nose and making it feel raw is bad enough without all of the Pokemon scurrying by his legs. This feeling is made infinitely worse by the fact that it's dark outside and Maxie can hardly see the Pokemon scurrying past him, even with the light of his flashlight.

"Stop complaining," Archie says through a mouthful of grass, "we're finally being noticed!" Maxie grumbles.

"What do we need from Fortree anyway? The only remotely important thing about Fortree is the gym there."

"A flying type gym," Archie responds, "flying is cool. It's pretty useful too. I guess it could have something to do with that."

"We _are_ taking something from Beval."

By now they have reached Fortree, and Archie is clambering up the steps to the houses positioned off the ground, Maxie following shortly behind him. "You would think," Maxie says in a whisper, "that the people of this town are constantly prepared for a flood with the way they build their houses."

"This sounds like the perfect place for you to live in then, you weird water hater."

"Weird! I'm not the one who wants to stick my dick in the ocean!"

"Better than sticking your dick into a Diglett hole." Archie and Maxie's tones have turned into a pseudo-agitated sort of hiss, growing in volume enough to cause the two of them to shush each other but not enough to wake anyone up.

"Which house do you think is Beval's?" Maxie asks. Archie shrugs.

Archie and Maxie walk from house to house, peeking through windows, looking for any indication that Beval lives in them. One house near the gym seems to be a little larger and better structured than the other houses, so Archie and Maxie opt to pick the lock (rather than climb through one of the windows and possibly cause a ruckus) and see if it _is_ Beval's house.

Archie is remarkably good at picking locks, something Maxie teased him about quite a bit when he first found out ("You thief!" he had said, faking disapproval and shock) but learned to appreciate as the skill became useful more and more often during missions.

Once Archie has picked the lock, the two of them walk through the house, light on their feet, something especially important in Fortree, where the floor boards creak and moan at even the lightest of touches. Maxie had had to teach Archie how to tread lightly, as he 'walked like a Rhydon', as Maxie had put it.

With this information being as it is, it's rather ironic, then, that Maxie trips over a toy lying on the floor and would have fallen over completely if not for Archie reaching out and steadying him. Still, it makes a rather loud noise, and a light flickers on in another room in the house. Hardly thinking about it, Archie drags Maxie over to the corner of the house in front of the kitchen counter. The two of them sit as quiet as they can as Beval and his wife walk into the room.

"It's _nothing_, Beval! Come back to bed before we wake Winnie up."

"Winnie's _fine_. If she didn't wake up because of _that_ sound, then she's not gonna wake up now."

"Oh, Beval, stop worrying." Beval stalks around the room, kicking at things and glancing around corners. Maxie and Archie hold their breath, hoping that the dark will conceal them. "Beval," His wife says after a few minutes, "I'm tired, I'm pregnant, and we have a sleeping daughter in the other room. There's nothing in here; a Pokemon probably flew through the window. Can we go back to bed now?" Beval gives the room one last scan over with his eyes, sighs, and finally agrees. He goes back into his and his wife's room and, shortly after, the light in that room is turned off. Archie and Maxie are absolutely silent for a few minutes, and then, Archie lets out a sigh of relief.

"I walk like a Rhydon? _I_ walk like a Rhydon?" Archie hisses.

"Shut up, Archie. Let's just get the blueprints and leave."

"If you trip again I will pick you up by the ankles and throw you off the side of Mt. Pyre," Archie hisses once again as they slowly stand and creep through the house.

Without the mishap involving Maxie tripping, the objective to take a specific set of Beval's blueprints might have been too easy. In the back of the house, there is a room seemingly dedicated specifically to Beval's architectural ideas and inventions. Archie and Maxie look through only a few sets of blueprints before they find the ones that they are looking for. They take the blueprints and slip out of the house quietly, locking the door behind them so nothing seems out of place.

In the safety of the tall grass in the route next to Fortree, Archie laughs and slaps Maxie on the back. "That was terrifying!"

"You're damn right about that."

"We're a good time after all, eh, Max?"

"…I suppose so."

Really, though, the two of them knew that all along.

—

With the blueprints Archie and Maxie got from Beval's house, a new project sprouts up in the team. Some time in the process of the construction, Maxie and Archie are ordered to travel to Sootopolis to investigate the power of the Cave of Origin. Archie beams and says, "I get to drag you underwater after all!" Maxie resolves to get a flying Pokemon after their trip to Sootopolis.

Before Archie and Maxie set off on Archie's newly evolved Sharpedo, Archie throws a pair of gloves at Maxie. "My Sharpedo's skin will rip your hands up if you don't have a whole bunch of calluses like me," Archie says. Maxie slips on the gloves without a complaint.

Maxie might describe the ride on Archie's Sharpedo to Sootopolis using a number of adjectives and adverbs, however, if he had to describe it in one word and one word only, he would describe it as being unpleasant. Sea water drenches his feet and most of his legs, and the short back characteristic of a Sharpedo forces Maxie to sit very close to Archie, which (_un_admittedly because Maxie would _not_ admit this to himself. Maybe. Out loud) might not be so bad if Maxie wasn't so uncomfortable in the first place.

Maxie is tired in the sense that his eyes are starting to droop shut and in the sense that many of his muscles are aching by the time that he and Archie get to the outskirts of Sootopolis. "Shut your eyes and hold your breath," Archie says, "we're about to go underwater!" Maxie does, feeling a deep sense of dread as more and more of his body is submerged under the water.

Maxie has a death grip on Archie as they are navigated underwater. He can feel himself panicking, and he urges himself to stop, but it's not as easy as he would like it to be. _Oh, Arceus,_ Maxie thinks, _I'm going to drown because I can't fucking calm down!_ Maxie's lungs scream for air, and he screws his eyes impossibly tighter shut. Maxie is almost certain that he _will_ run out of breath and die when he, Archie, and Archie's Sharpedo emerge from the water. Maxie takes a deep, hard breath in.

"Hey, are you okay?" Archie asks while steering them to land, glancing over his shoulder. Archie hops off of his Sharpedo onto land and looks at Maxie.

"I'm…no…no…." Maxie shakes his head a few times and Archie's takes it upon himself to pull Maxie off of his Sharpedo onto land.

"The way you were squeezing me, I'm sure my stomach's gonna be black and blue in a few hours." Maxie has his arms crossed over his stomach, his head dipped down so that he is staring into the water. "Come, on, Maxie, enough of that. Do you think you can stand?" Archie calls his Sharpedo back into his Pokeball and helps Maxie onto his feet.

"Let's go…let's go see the Cave of Origin," Maxie says, swaying but still trying to move forward. Archie stays close to him, an arm around his waist, ready to catch him if he teeters too far over.

The walk to the Cave of Origin is rather moderate, and Maxie grows sturdier with his steps as he walks. Some time during the walk it becomes apparent that Archie doesn't need to have his arm around him anymore, but Archie figures, well, it's just in case.

The door to the Cave of Origin is large and intimidating. Power radiates from within the cave, and Maxie and Archie can't help but to touch their fingers against the metal of the door. "I don't think even you could break this lock," Maxie says, quietly, not entirely willing to break the spell that the Cave of Origin's entrance seems to have caught them under. Archie shakes his head.

Somehow, someway, Maxie is pulled closer to Archie's side. The two of them look from the door to each other, then back again, their cheeks burning ever so slightly. They stay quiet and enraptured for minutes upon minutes before the bray of a Pokemon in the water breaks the spell just enough so that Archie and Maxie can pull their hands away from the door and turn away from it.

"That's definitely something," Archie says.

"Mmhmm," Maxie responds.

They stand together, facing away from the door for a little while. Then, together, at the same time, the two of them turn and kiss each other.

Their mouths bump together painfully due to this equal motion, but neither of them take pause at this, and the kiss molds itself into something more pleasurable. Maxie's arms wrap around Archie as well and they pull each other closer. Now so close to him, Archie can feel Maxie shivering from the combination of his wet skin and clothes and the chill of the nighttime air. The kiss ends, and Archie plans to say something about Maxie freezing, but his eyes catch Maxie's, and they're kissing again before much manages to cross through either of their minds at all. This time Maxie nips at Archie's lip, and Archie opens his mouth almost automatically. Their tongues slide together smoothly; they don't rush.

"Maxie," Archie says once he's caught his breath after his and Maxie's mouths part, "you're gonna get hypothermia if we stay out here much longer."

"Mmm…but you're warm…and your lips are soft."

"And I'd prefer to kiss your lips if they weren't blue and dead."

"Alright, alright, calm down, Shakespeare." Archie laughs and forces himself to detach himself from Maxie so that he can walk with him; he keeps his arm around Maxie's waist, however, still wanting to touch Maxie and never stop.

Archie's Sharpedo does have to be called back out of his Pokeball for Archie and Maxie to make it to the Pokemon Center, but the trip is very short. No questions come from the nurse as they step inside and make their way into one of the guest rooms, a fact that Archie and Maxie are thankful for.

"Hey, hey, Maxie," Archie says, a wide grin on his face, "take your clothes off." A pause. "So you don't freeze in your sleep."

"You're ridiculous," Maxie says, tossing his shirt onto the floor, "I'm sure that you'll be absolutely insufferable now that we're…." Maxie stops, his face turning bright red as he turns himself so that he isn't facing Archie.

"Dating?" Archie supplies, his voice soft but still filled with poorly contained joy.

"Yeah," Maxie says, "dating. We're dating." Archie walks across the room and pecks him on the cheek.

Maxie discovers that night that Archie likes to cuddle a lot, which is nice because he's still rather cold even when he slips under the covers of the Sootopolis City Pokemon Center's guest room bed.

—

"What's something that not a lot of people know about you?" Archie has moved now from a lying position to a sitting position; he runs his fingers through the grass and occasionally picks a flower and drops it on Maxie's face.

"What is this, a dating service?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I don't know. I guess a lot of people don't know that I can read tarot cards pretty well. And I mean without the little guidebooks that are included within the packs."

"Tell me my future," Archie says, twirling a lock of Maxie's bright red hair around his finger, "will I be kissing a saucy redhead anytime soon?"

"Oh, very soon." Maxie wraps an arm around the back of Archie's head, tugs him down, and kisses him. "Now, what about you?"

"Um…well, I'm kind of…really flexible." Maxie looks at Archie in a rather analytical fashion. "I know what you're thinking, pervert. Let me tell you, you're absolutely right to be thinking it." Archie scoots back a ways so that he has space and moves his leg into a position that looks grotesque and painful to Maxie.

"I'm aroused and mortified at the same time."

"Good."

The pair toss questions and anecdotes back and forth for a while before a particularly interesting question is asked.

"If you could accomplish one grandiose thing, what would it be?" Archie asks.

"I think…I think I'd want to expand the land…to give us all more room to live in." Archie frowns.

"I'd want to expand the sea. What about all the water Pokemon, Maxie?" The atmosphere becomes very harsh; it seems to almost be dipping into the category of being angry. Maxie's angry face—truly angry, not agitated at something asinine Archie did angry or angry at someone _else_ angry—makes Archie feel like he's being burnt alive, and he can't stand it.

Archie says, guided by nothing at all, "We both…we just want to make the world better, don't we?" Still looking angry, but more cautiously so now, Maxie nods. "We could…we could work together and meet in the middle."

"That…that doesn't sound so bad." Maxie's hand finds Archie's again, and both of them are certain in that moment that they will be just fine.


	2. Chapter 2

It occurs to Archie and Maxie that the things they do on their team might not be for good when, about a month or so later, they see none other than Beval, his very pregnant wife, and their daughter, Winona in Lilycove. Realizing who is near them, Archie and Maxie take a closer look and notice a Swablu flying around Winona's head and a person they can't identify walking close to Beval, trying to talk in a hushed voice but failing as more passion goes into their words.

"…bad things, Beval! The houses of Fortree have to be guarded better. _Your_ house has to be guarded better!"

"Gia, I am on vacation with my wife and my child. We are on our way to the Concert Center so Winnie can enter her first contest. We are also in public. This is_not_ the time to be talking about this." Gia doesn't speak for a moment, a scowl on her face.

"…You're right. This villainous team, though…it worries me, you know?"

"Yes, I do know."

"Dad," Winona says, looking up at Beval with big eyes, "is everything going to be okay?"

"Everything's going to be just fine, Winnie," Beval says with a smile, patting Winona on the head. Archie and Maxie exchange concerned looks.

—

It's not long after this incident that Archie and Maxie leave their team. They don't make a big deal about it; they slip away in the middle of the night, not telling anyone about their plans.

Oh, and plans they have.

—

"Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus," Maxie says, for all purposes _shoving_ a book into Archie's face.

"What about Shaymin?" Archie asks, thwacking Maxie on the arm after taking the book. He starts reading as Maxie makes a few half-assed objections to being swatted on the arm.

"That _is_ a good idea, however," Maxie says after his protests.

"Do you think we're too ambitious, Max?" Archie asks.

"Are you backing out on me, now?"

"No," Archie says, "I'm prepared to fly as high as I can, melted wax in my wings or not. I'd like to hope that we can touch the sun, though."

"Together." Maxie forces Archie to shift the book, awkwardly, into one hand as he threads his fingers through the other. "Are you finished reading the page yet?"

"Yep. Summoning all of these legendary Pokemon, though…it'll be really hard."

"Of course it will! That's why they're legendary Pokemon!"

"Do you think we could summon Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus all at once somehow?"

"I like the way you think."

"I like you period." Maxie kisses him, buzzing with excitement.

The kiss really does start out as a simple little thing, but soon Archie is placing the book he's holding onto the table and letting his hands slip down the back of Maxie's pants onto his ass, and Maxie's hands are making their way under and up Archie's shirt.

When Maxie and Archie move to their bed, there is no pushing involved; both of their feet start moving, and they guide themselves to it like it's an instinct, like it's their nature. One of them (which one? They're so lost in each other that they can't tell) is shoved back onto the bed and the other follows shortly after. Archie's lips are on Maxie's neck and Maxie's hands are undoing Archie's jeans, little noises of pleasure squeaking past his lips as his hands work.

"I think," Archie says, pushing Maxie's shirt to the side and sucking a hickie into his collarbone before continuing, "that I'd like for you to fuck me today."

"I was thinking that I'd like to fuck you as well." Maxie rubs at Archie's penis through his underwear. "Also," he says, "I don't feel like spending a lot of time taking off your clothes. Or taking off my clothes for that matter." Maxie gives Archie a sweet, gentle kiss before moving himself off of the bed and stripping himself. Archie whistles at him.

"I didn't know I was getting a _show_."

"Don't you always consider it to be a show when a naked me is involved?"

"What can I say?" Archie moves off the bed and starts to strip himself now, "your body is like art."

"I'm gagging." Archie laughs.

—

"We're never going to get anything done at this rate," Maxie says, lazily, as Archie kisses his neck.

"You started it," Archie says.

"That much is true."

Maxie flips himself onto his other side and gives Archie a kiss on the lips.

"I think that I recall an old legend claiming that Shaymin makes its home in Sinnoh in a place called the Flower Paradise," Archie says, rubbing his nose lightly against Maxie's, making him smile.

"Shaymin seems like it'd be easier to get than Tornadus, Thundurus, or Landorus. I've read that they roam around Unova."

"We've got our work cut out for us, hmm, Max?"

—

"Fucking Hell if we have enough money to get a boat ticket all the way to Sinnoh," Maxie says, kicking at a leg of the table in their secret base in anger, which, in all reality, does no good.

"We could earn it, though."

"Doing what? I went off and joined some villainous team instead of going to college like a…like…I don't even know what." Maxie sits down and sighs. "None of this was supposed to happen."

"Hey, Maxie, I'm sure there's _something_ you can do." Maxie sighs.

"You're right." He pauses. "Let's go get _jobs_." Archie and Maxie both grimace.

—

One day, while Archie and Maxie nap after working, an important news broadcast comes onto TVs all across Hoenn, though, not Archie and Maxie's TV because their TV is turned off.

The broadcast starts with footage of two men, one looking older than the other and riding a Skarmory alongside a younger looking man surfing across the ocean on a Linoone. A news broadcaster's voice comes on along with the footage.

"Actions by Fortree gym leader, Beval, and Littleroot native, Norman, have led to the defeat of the villainous team that ravaged Hoenn! Coming up shortly, we will be interviewing these heroes themselves!"

The broadcaster talks more before the interviews, but a lot of it is stuff that will fall out of the minds of Hoenn residents almost as soon as they hear it; what they want to hear, and what is the most important part of the broadcast, are the interviews.

"I guess you could say that my motives were kind of selfish. Some members of that team stole some of my blueprints, and it got to a point where my daughter was worried and people kept bringing it up to me, so I decided to do something about it. Really, Norman's the one you should be talking to."

"Beval," Norman says, looking a little sheepish, "I'm just a guy from Littleroot! You're a gym leader. They should be talking to _you_."

Looking a little agitated, the interviewer cuts in before the conversation can go on, "Well, we've heard Beval's reasoning already. What about yours, Norman?"

"Not to sound full of myself or anything, but I really, honestly did it because I felt that what the team was doing was wrong, and, well, I figured, if no one else is going to do something, why not me? And, then, I just sort of met Beval along the way."

The two of them talk more about exactly all that they did together, and then, the interviewer asks them something rather unconventional.

"If you could offer any advice to everyone so that this won't happen again, what would it be?"

Beval and Norman are silent for a moment, thinking. Then, Norman says, "I just think that, sometimes, things need to be left as they are. Humans…we're not meant to wield the amount of power that a lot of us like to think we are. A very careful balance is kept between us and Pokemon, and we need to always remember never to overstep it." Beval nods.

"Stop and think is what I'd say," Beval says, "think for a long time, if need be."

"Wonderful advice," the interviewer says with a small nod. Then, she says a few things to wrap up the interviewing segment and signs off. She thanks Beval and Norman for their time, and then goes over to the camera crew to talk to them. Norman stands.

"It was nice to see you again, Beval. I'm afraid that I can't stay and talk for very long, though, because I've got a date with my girlfriend coming up in an hour!" Norman grins from ear to ear and Beval congratulates him, smiling back at him.

—

Surprise might be a good term to describe the emotion that Archie and Maxie feelwhen they discover a teenager, a few months later when they almost have the amount of money they'd like for their adventure, positioned outside of the entrance of the construction site for New Mauville, holding up a poster with an angry look on his face.

"Kid," an angry construction worker says, covered by a sweat soaked shirt and sporting an oddly patterned sunburn, "_please_ leave. I'm just doing my job. If you want to talk to someone about how you think this project is 'endangering the habitat of certain types of Pokemon', then talk to Wattson. Don't waste your time out here pissing us off."

Archie and Maxie, having come to the construction site for the same reason as the teenager with the poster, apparently, raise an eyebrow at each other, wanting to see how the interaction plays out before they make their own attempts at getting the project cancelled.

"Why don't _you_ leave me the _fuck_ alone," the teen says, words dripping with so much malice that Archie and Maxie can feel themselves double taking, "I'm protesting peacefully. I'm not bothering you."

"You've got _some_ nerve; you're lucky I'm on the job right now." The worker leans forward until his nose and the teenager's are only a few inches apart. The teen scowls, looking murderously irate.

"Excuse me," Maxie says, "what exactly is going on here?" Archie tries not to laugh at Maxie's method of going about things.

"I am peacefully protesting," The teenager says, quickly, before the worker can speak, "and this _brute_ seems to have an issue with the fact."

"This kid is an obnoxious brat who needs to take this somewhere else. And who are you to be talking? You don't look like you're very far out of your teens."

"I'm 22," Maxie says, spitting out the information just a bit too quickly in well-masked agitation, "and I do believe that you have work to do, do you not?" Grumbling, the worker says a few choice expletives, then hunkers back off into New Mauville. Maxie turns the teenager. "I admire your sentiments, but you need to work on that temper of yours. You'll get nowhere if those that you're opposing beat you up. My name is Maxie, by the way."

"And I'm Archie."

"I'm Tabitha," the teenager says. Maxie looks as if he is about to continue the tangent he was on before he told Tabitha his name, but Archie can see that Tabitha is absolutely not up for it at the moment, so he cuts in.

"Hey, Tabitha, do you want to go to Mauville with us to see if we can try to talk to Wattson and get this project shut down?" Maxie steps on Archie's foot, but he pays him no mind.

"Yeah!" Tabitha says, his eyes lighting up already.

Right before the three of them go to talk to Wattson, Maxie tells Tabitha, quickly, to watch his temper. Tabitha nods, but Archie knows that something like that isn't something that can be changed in a short period of time. He's prepared for Tabitha's temper, though, whether Maxie is or not is something unknown to Archie.

The conversation that Maxie, Archie, and Tabitha have with Wattson goes much more smoothly than any of them would have expected. Wattson seems to honestly have never thought that the New Mauville project may be dangerous to Pokemon in the area and says that he will look into it. He thanks the three of them (sincerely from what they can tell), and they leave.

"It was that easy?" Tabitha asks, shocked.

"I'll admit, I didn't expect it to be that easy either."

"Maybe this'll be a lesson to both of you about," Archie puts on an over exaggerated Maxie voice, "'_not losing your temper_'."

"You're one to talk!" Maxie says, "I seem to recall a time when you nearly punched someone in the face because they bumped into me and didn't apologize!"

"Who's losing their temper now?" Maxie lets out a breath of air, pointedly ignoring the bemused look on Tabitha's face.

"You're infuriating."

"You love me anyway." Archie gives Maxie a smug grin and Maxie blushes just slightly.

"…That I do." He turns to Tabitha, "I can tell that you love the environment, just like us. We have some…plans that we're working on, and, maybe when they're more developed, you could join us."

"I would love to!" Maxie and Archie say their goodbyes to Tabitha and leave Mauville.

"I think Tabitha fell in love with you," Archie says.

"Yes, well, then, you two have something in common already. I don't blame you either. I _am_ really great." Archie rolls his eyes.

* * *

I keep saying 'villainous team' because I don't want to name the team; I feel like I don't have that kind of power.

Also, yes, Norman's girlfriend is indeed our dear protagonist's future mother!


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry this took me so long! I've been really busy.

Also yeah. Flannery and Maxie's hair colors are so similar that I figure that they could possibly be related. So I incorporated that into the chapter a little bit. It's not very important, though, if you don't like that idea.

* * *

"The gym leader of Lavaridge is _related_ to you? How come you never told me this?"

"I thought it was kind of obvious to be honest. Didn't the bright red hair and home town give anything away?"

"_Sorry_ that I don't think too much about the gym leader of Lavaridge."

"Well, he's not _that_ closely related to me, anyway. He's my grand uncle. Honestly, I'm much closer to his daughter and granddaughter."

"Aww, are you friends with your family?"

"Shut up. Flannery still has trouble pronouncing my name."

"Flannery?"

"My grand uncle's granddaughter. My second cousin."

"You wouldn't happen to have any relatives in Sinnoh, would you?"

"No, unfortunately."

"We're gonna be so lost," Archie says with a sigh.

—

The boat ride to Sinnoh is quite a long one, and Maxie is doing his best to distract himself by talking to Archie. He does recognize, however, that Archie enjoys being on ships and looking off the side of them, so he tries to keep his nervous babbling to a minimum. Archie always seems to be willing to listen, though.

"How about you?" Maxie knocks his shoulder against Archie's, "Do you have any relatives in Sinnoh?" Archie thinks for a moment.

"To my knowledge, no."

"Well, we'll just have to make do then." Maxie threads his hand through Archie's.

"If you don't mind, do you wanna look off the side of the ship with me?"

"Yeah, alright. You get this nice, peaceful look on your face when you watch the water. It's sweet." Archie laughs and smiles.

"You're so in love with me." Maxie hums and gives Archie a kiss.

At the side of the ship, Archie leans his head on Maxie's shoulder and Maxie leans his head on Archie's head as they watch the water together. Maxie is much more focused on Archie than the water, though.

—

"Do you feel better now that you're back on land?" Archie asks Maxie once they're getting off the ship at Canalave City.

"Do you feel _worse_ now that we're back on land?" Archie bumps Maxie with his hip, nearly knocking him into someone else walking off of the ship.

"Yeah. I'm terribly distraught about the whole thing."

"Would you _please_ quit it?" Maxie says, knocking Archie right back, "Other people are walking around too."

People start to disperse in different directions as they get farther away from the ship, but Archie and Maxie start to slow down and eventually come to a complete stop, other ship goers passing them by.

"Let's go into a Pokemon Center to get a map of Sinnoh," Maxie says, talking a bit louder than he normally would over the noise of the crowd around them.

"Looks like we're going to Jubilife." Archie looks a bit more closely at the map. "Damn, we have to trek all across Sinnoh to get to where we want to be."

"At what point do you think that we can ride our Crobats to the Flower Paradise?"

"I don't know," Archie says with a frown, "Seabreak Path is really long. And by really long I mean _really_ long."

"We could do a night of camping out once we get there."

"I hate camping."

"I thought you might. Hating camping seems very Maxieish."

"Oh? And what might be considered 'Archieish'? Running away and living your entire life on the seas?"

"Ha ha, Maxie. Now, come on."

—

The walk through route 218 doesn't take very long at all, even with the small trip on Archie's Sharpedo that Archie and Maxie have to make. The difference between the atmosphere of the quiet route 218 and the bustling Jubilife City. By this time, it's around seven in the evening and it's getting dark, but with the bright lights of Jubilife City, the darkness is much less noticeable than it would be otherwise.

"Where are we off to after this?" Archie asks, looking at their map, "Route 204 or route 203?"

"I think I'd rather go off to a hotel to sleep for tonight before we go anywhere else." Archie kisses Maxie's cheek.

"Alright. Let's try to go for a long ways tomorrow; we don't want to spend a lot of money by stopping at hotels too often."

"I know," Maxie says.

The two walk to the Jubilife Hotel hand and hand. The hotel clerk smiles at them as she hands them the key to their room.

—

Archie and Maxie decide to go through route 203 because Lake Valor is along the route the route that they will go through if they choose to go through route 203 instead of route 204, and Archie had seemed rather fond of passing by a lake.

Route 203 itself, though, is rather hilly and leads into Oreburgh Gate. "I used to go hiking a lot in high school, you know," Maxie says, stopping the humming that he had been doing prior to talking as he and Archie trek up route 203.

"I've never been hiking. Though, I like to swim, and I know that you don't."

"Ah, yes, but we're both willing to travel to another region and travel across it for our common ambitions."

"And we love each other, so there's that."

"Someone really ought to create a movie based off of our lives."

—

Archie tries to be discreet about grimacing as they approach the Oreburgh Gate, but ever perceptive Maxie notices.

"Are you alright, Archie?" He asks, honestly concerned.

"Yeah, I just…don't really like caves."

"Didn't you meet your Crobat in a cave, though?"

"Well, yeah, but…I don't know."

"Oh, don't worry, ickle Archie, I'll protect you from the dark, scary cave."

"Just because I don't like caves doesn't mean that I won't hesitate to smash your head into the cave's fucking rock walls." Archie shoves Maxie to the side and treks into Oreburgh Gate ahead of him.

The cave is dark, Archie trips over rocks quite a few times, and a few obnoxious cave goers challenge the two of them to Pokemon battles, but Archie and Maxie do manage to make it out of Oreburgh Gate and into Oreburgh City, eventually.

"Coal mining?" Maxie asks no one as he and Archie set foot into Oreburgh City, "I bet a lot of fossils are retrieved in this city."

"Did you consider being a coal miner when you were younger?"

"Hell no. I'd rather live past forty. I'd also rather not die by my lungs slowly being poisoned."

Still, rather than just passing through Oreburgh as quickly as possible, Maxie spends some time admiring the Oreburgh mines. Archie knows that he sould stop him and remind him of their goal of getting to the Flower Paradise, but Archie can't bring himself to do it, seeing how interested Maxie is. Maxie even talks to a few of the miners, asking them questions about the mine and the things dug up from it. Archie rolls his eyes a few times but never makes an effort to get Maxie to leave Oreburgh with him until Maxie is through with his exploration.

"Sorry about that, Archie," Maxie says quickly once he's realized just how much time he'd spent exploring Oreburgh City.

"Aw, nah, don't worry about it. You seemed like you were enjoying yourself."

Stopping in Oreburgh might have been a good idea, as the walk from Oreburgh City, through a small bit of Mt. Coronet, and to Hearthome City is a rather long one. It's very, very early in the morning with Archie and Maxie make it to Hearthome, and the two of them fall asleep nearly the moment they fall into their bed in the Hearthome City Hotel.

Archie and Maxie expect to trek through route 212 like they had trekked through every Sinnoh route they had gone through before it, but something different happens while the two of them are walking through the route.

A Buizel leaps out of the grass and onto Archie's shoulders, waving her limbs around and shifting her weight until that she can balance herself. Archie and Maxie both scream a little, but no one has to know about that.

Archie and Maxie are quiet, trying to process what just happened to them. The Buizel makes some content noises and rubs her face against Archie's head.

"There's a Buizel on my shoulders," Archie says.

"She…seems to like you," Maxie says, still staring at the Buizel cautiously.

"Would you like to come along with me, Buizel?" The Buizel lets out a loud cry at this suggestion and rubs her face more forcefully against Archie's head. Archie fishes a Pokeball out of his bag and holds it up to the Buizel. "Do you want to come along in a Pokeball, Buizel?" The Buizel growls and bats a paw at the Pokeball. "You don't have to stay in it! I just need an easy way to carry you around if something ever happens!" The Buizel makes a few noises and seems to be contemplating Archie's words.

After a little while, the Buizel taps on the Pokeball a few times. Archie presses the button on it and catches the Buizel. As soon as she's caught, Archie lets her out, and she goes right back to sitting on Archie's shoulders.

"Well. It looks like you have a new Pokemon now," Maxie says.

"Hey, Bui, that's my dorky boyfriend, Maxie." Bui adjusts her position on Archie's shoulders so that she can sniff at Maxie. Bui yaps happily at him. "Seems like she likes you." Maxie rubs at Bui's nose.

"Well…I'm glad."

"Sap." Archie taps his foot against Maxie's ankle.

When Archie and Maxie have to travel across a small patch of water on Archie's Sharpedo, Bui hops off of Archie's shoulders and swims right alongside Archie's Sharpedo, yapping at him. Soon, he's making noises back at her, and it's easy for Archie and Maxie to see that the two of them have become fast friends.

Once Archie and Maxie reach land, Archie calls his Sharpedo back into his Pokeball, and, even though Bui seems a bit sad, she seems to understand that her friend can't walk on land as well as swim like she can.

"We're on our way to Pastoria City, Bui!" Archie says.

"We're trying to do great things, Bui." Bui lets out a happy yap.


	4. Chapter 4

In this chapter, Courtney is 18. Shelly is either 19 or very close to being 19.

I took a few more liberties with Shaymin's powers than just what we have seen so far in games, the anime, etc.

* * *

More time is spent than was originally planned at Lake Valor. Upon seeing the lake, Bui jumps off of Archie's shoulders and dashes to it, hopping into the water with a splash. Maxie sighs, but there is a slight smile on his lips, which is approval enough for Archie to let his Sharpedo play in the lake as well. Archie walks to the lake, takes off his shoes, and sits, putting his feet into the water. Maxie watches from a distance, sitting underneath the shade of a tree.

Though they could all probably stay at the lake for the entire day, Archie eventually calls his Pokemon back. Bui settles herself onto Archie's shoulders just as she had before, though this time soaking his shirt with her wet paws. Archie doesn't mind.

From Sunyshore City, once Archie and Maxie reach it, they get their Crobats to fly them to the Pokemon League, figuring that they can stay there for the night before they make their way to the Flower Paradise. Archie shifts Bui into his arms for the flight so that she doesn't jump off as she looks like she is considering doing, even being held firmly in Archie's arms.

Maxie and Archie rest for the night at the Pokemon League's Pokemon Center. They're given strange looks, of course; seldom anyone at all comes to the Pokemon League for reasons other than challenging the Elite Four and the Champion. The looks are ignored by Archie and Maxie, though, and they leave to find Seabreak Path in the morning.

Though it is pretty and covered in flowers, it's easy to see why Seabreak Path is rarely traveled on; Seabreak Path seems to extend on forever, and the presence of one long strip of flower covered land in a place so far away from humanity gives off the impression that something powerful resides at the end of it, which, actually, is true.

Seabreak Path is so long that Archie and Maxie do end up camping out on the path like they said they would. They continue their walking the next day and reach the Flower Paradise late that night.

Archie and Maxie see Shaymin on the top of a few sections of raised land; it looks pretty close to falling asleep, so Maxie and Archie resolve to sleep through that night at the base of the Flower Paradise and not try to interact with Shaymin until the next day, when all of them are more awake.

All is quiet as Archie and Maxie walk up the Flower Paradise. Tension is heavy in the air, and it grows and grows the closer Archie and Maxie get to Shaymin. Finally, the two of them are right in front of Shaymin, and their breaths catch in their throats.

Archie and Maxie's nerves are lessened when Shaymin lets out a small yip, as if questioning the two of them.

"Hi, Shaymin," Archie says, finally. A beat of silence, "My name's Archie."

"And…I'm Maxie," Maxie says quietly.

"And this is Bui." Bui makes a small noise of greeting. Shaymin makes one back.

Maxie crouches down so that his line of vision is closer to Shaymin's, prompting Archie to do the same. "Hey, Shaymin, we have a proposition for you," Maxie says. Shaymin makes a noise. "You see, us two, we have a goal. We want to make the world a better, healthier place. We want the land to be more fertile, the seas to be cleaner, and the air to be purer. We think, with your power, that you could help us. Would you like to, Shaymin?"

Shaymin yaps and seems to almost smile. It presses a paw against the ground, pulls it back, and a flower sprouts in the spot where its paw was just moments before. The flower is bright red and the petals have a unique, flame-like shape. Shaymin nudges it towards Maxie with its snout.

"Is this for me, Shaymin?" Shaymin yaps again and nudges the flower towards Maxie again, more forcefully this time. Maxie carefully plucks the flower from the Earth. "Thank you, Shaymin."

Shaymin then turns to Archie and paws the ground just like it had done before. The flower that sprouts up from the ground this time is deep blue and its petals are shaped like waves. Archie thanks the little Pokemon and takes the flower. Shaymin crawls up onto Maxie's shoulders.

"Would you like to come to our home country of Hoenn with us?" Maxie asks Shaymin. Shaymin lets out a happy yap, and the few patches in the Flower Paradise void of flowers suddenly gain flowers. Archie and Maxie smile as they leave, Shaymin in tow.

—

Hiding Shaymin on the trip back to Hoenn is difficult. Just some of the things that Shaymin is hidden under include blankets, jackets, and shirts. Once Archie and Maxie make it back to their secret base, however, Shaymin's days of being hidden are over.

Shaymin creates a large number of flowers around the secret base as soon as it arrives. Archie and Maxie's plans for going after Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus are still unclear, so the two of them plan to create something bigger than just the two of them (though, both of them are hesitant to call it a team after their previous experiences). So, Archie and Maxie spread the word around Hoenn that they're looking to make the world better.

Well, _around_ Hoenn might be a bit of an exaggeration. The information that Maxie and Archie give out spreads a bit and is ignored by most people.

Some people are interested, though. Most of their interest is minor, but, for a few people, the interest is more than that. People like a young woman named Courtney.

Courtney comes directly to Archie and Maxie's secret base. Archie and Maxie invite her inside, and her eyes widen when she sees the legendary Pokemon, Shaymin, perched on top of Archie and Maxie's couch. "You're…you're _really_ serious about this," Courtney says breathlessly.

"Yes we are," Maxie says, handing Courtney a cup of tea like she had asked for, "we're hoping to see if we can get Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus to come along with us as well, but we want to get a bit more backing before we go off on that venture." Courtney sips at the tea like it's something alcoholic.

"Come on, sit down," Archie says, "none of our Pokemon will hurt you." Courtney sits down in a chair across from the couch, still feeling uneasy. "So, aside from the fact that you live here, what gives you passion for the Earth?"

"Honestly?" Courtney asks, fiddling with the sleeves of her shirt, "I come from a family of farmers. My father moved to Rustboro as soon as he graduated from high school. He used to take me to my grandparents' house and my aunts' and uncles' houses a lot. That really…made me an earthier person, or something like that."

Archie, Maxie, and Courtney talk a bit more before Courtney goes back to Rustboro. They promise to keep in touch, and they do.

—

It's rough and shaky, but a group of people united by a common interest—somewhat organized by Archie and Maxie—form together. Archie and Maxie spend most of their time traveling around Hoenn with Shaymin, growing flowers and trees on patches of land that were unfertile before Archie, Maxie, and Shaymin came upon them. Along the way, they run into Tabitha again, who is thrilled to see them, put into complete awe by Shaymin, and says many times that he will join the sort of semi-team that they have as soon as he can.

Checking in on Courtney in Rustboro, however, yields some interesting results.

Archie and Maxie are sauntering through Rustboro when they spot Courtney. Soon after, a woman comes running after her.

"Courtney!" She calls, "Courtney, you forgot your notebook!" Courtney looks from the woman down to her empty hands.

"I _did_. Thank you, Shelly." Courtney takes the notebook from Shelly. Courtney glances at Archie and Maxie, and then says, "Shelly, this is Maxie and Archie, do you know of them?" Shelly narrows her eyes a bit.

"Aren't you the guys who are supposedly running around all of Hoenn with Shaymin?"

"We are indeed," Maxie says, and from the bag that he has slung across his shoulder, Shaymin peeks its head out just a bit, recognizing its name. Shelly gasps.

"So it _is_ true! I was interested, but I thought…. Oh, it doesn't matter. I have to get back to work, but I'm definitely interested, just so you guys know. Courtney, will you fill me in on everything they say and what all is going on? Thanks!" Shelly dashes off after this.

"That's Shelly," Courtney says to Archie and Maxie, "she works at Devon. I'm doing an internship there, and we used to go to school together, so that's how I know her."

Archie and Maxie talk to Courtney about what all has been happening since they last talked to each other, and Courtney promises to tell Shelly all about what Archie and Maxie are doing and give her a way to get in touch with them. They all say their goodbyes, and Archie and Maxie leave Rustboro to continue their travels.


	5. Chapter 5

Introducing Matt in this chapter!

There's a significant time skip between the end of last chapter and the beginning of this one! Matt is 18 (though he didn't have an age prior to this because he wasn't in the story, but he's a year younger than Tabitha who was 15 last chapter), Tabitha is 19, Courtney is 22, Shelly is 23, Archie is 25, and Maxie is 27.

* * *

Shelly has a pencil between her fingers and is running her hands through her hair constantly, both out of exasperation and also just to get it out of her face. She's poked herself in the head with her pencil multiple times this night, but Shelly is so focused that the small prick of pain does little to deter her.

"Fucking Forces of Nature," Shelly says, taking a large swig of the soda she has sitting on her desk, pencil still between her fingers, "How the fuck are we supposed to get Tornadus and Thundurus if they roam around Unova?"

On Shelly's paper, many words are written, some scratched out, some circled. However, circled multiple times and written in all capital letters are the words, _Years ago, Landorus stopped Tornadus and Thundurus's rampages. Landorus is much more likely to show himself if both of them are present._ _Some texts talk about the Abundant Shrine?_

—

Archie and Maxie hardly ever get the chance to relax anymore with everything that they have to do. Sometimes, though, they get tired, and Shaymin gets tired, so they go back to their secret base and spend a few days cuddling together, their Pokemon often joining in as well.

Archie is placing some sweet, gentle kisses onto Maxie's cheek when their phone goes off. Maxie fishes it off the table and places it to his ear, elbowing Archie in the ribs at the sound of his sigh. Archie flicks him on the back of the head and Maxie resents the fact that he can't yell at him because he's about to talk to someone on the phone.

"Archie, Maxie, _I figured it out_," Shelly says, talking a thousand miles a minute.

"Shelly, you figured what out?" Maxie asks.

"Tornadus and Thundurus! The storms, the Arceus-damn storms that Unova constantly has! It's them! That's how we find them! The Arceus-damn storms, I can't _believe_ I didn't think of that before, the fucking _storms_…."

"Shelly, you're going _way_ too fast. Could you catch us up please?" Maxie hears the sound of a few deep breaths on the other side of the line. Archie is giving him a questioning look; Maxie holds up a finger, telling him to wait a second.

"You know how—you know how Landorus won't come without Tornadus and Thundurus?"

"Yes."

"And you know how we couldn't figure out how to get them because they roam around Unova?"

"Yes."

"Maxie, they make storms wherever they go. It's _significant_ that Unova gets 'random' storms in 'random' places constantly. It's Tornadus and Thundurus! If we flew above Unova—on Pokemon or in a plane or _something_—we could see where the storms are and find Tornadus and Thundurus!"

"Shelly, is there any way that you could come to our secret base?"

"No, Maxie, I have to work."

"Alright. We're coming to Rustboro, then; tell Courtney and Tabitha."

"Where are we going to meet?" Maxie pauses for a moment.

"Why don't we meet near where you work?"

"That works."

Maxie and Shelly discuss timing, both of them feeling excited.

"Oh, and, Shelly?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"You're _so_ welcome, Maxie! Tell Archie I said hi!" Shelly and Maxie say their goodbyes, and then they hang up. Archie jabs Maxie in the cheek with his finger before he even _thinks_ of doing anything else before filling him in on what was said in the phone conversation, so Maxie tells him after giving him a brief scolding.

—

Though Archie has never been overly fond of Rustboro City, he is close to bouncing while he walks as he and Maxie wander through the city, both trying to waste time as they're a bit early and Shelly and Courtney are surely still working and to make it to the location that everyone involved had agreed on meeting at.

"Calm _down_, Archie," Maxie says as they walk, "I know that you don't listen when you're hyper."

"How are you _not_ hyper, Maxie? Everything that we've been working at, it's all coming together!"

"_I_ know how to maintain my composure, unlike _some_ people." Archie rolls his eyes.

"_I_ know you well enough to know that that's bullshit." Maxie flips him off.

When Archie and Maxie get to the small, secluded sitting area in the corner of Rustboro City, only Courtney is there. "Hello," she says, looking up at them.

"Is Shelly still at work?"

"That's what she said the last I talked to her. I don't quite know where Tabitha is, though."

Archie and Maxie sit together on one of the benches; Archie is jiggling his leg rapidly and persistently, so Maxie places a hand onto his knee. Archie places a hand onto Maxie's hand, and, even though Maxie hadn't intended for this moment to be romantic or sweet, Archie somehow made it that way. Unexpectedly, Maxie finds the hand over his to be rather comforting.

Shelly is the next to come, surprisingly. Courtney, Maxie, and Archie turn to look at her and she says, between deep breaths, "I ran here from work."

"I can tell," Courtney says, "come sit down. We're just waiting on Tabitha now." Shelly has two bags, one of them slung over each of her shoulders going to and from work. Shelly places them in front of her as she sits, laying the straps down onto her lap.

The four of them make idle conversation, not wanting to get their meeting started without everyone there. They don't have to wait long, however, before Tabitha comes running up to where they're sitting, someone they don't recognize following him.

"I'm…I'm sorry about—" Tabitha tries, but the person behind him cuts him off before he can finish.

"I'm Matt!" he says. Tabitha puts his face in his hands. "Tabi-Tabi—" Tabitha groans loudly, "—told me that you guys were planning to go to Unova! He also told me about your plans, and, well, I wanted to help! I grew up in Unova, so I could help you guys navigate around!"

"Alright, cool," Archie says, "come sit down. Let's make a plan!" Maxie gives him a slight look—how could he be so nonchalant about this newcomer just barging in on everything?—but figures that it really doesn't matter.

—

The plan involves getting sturdier Pokemon capable of flying than what they regularly use. Shelly smiles like she knows exactly what she's going to do, which makes Archie and Maxie worry a bit.

What Archie and Maxie find, later, once they've gotten their new Pokemon and are preparing to get on a ship to Unova with everyone else, is that the Pokemon Shelly has is a Salamence.

"A Salamence?" Maxie asks. Shelly has an incredibly smug look on her face.

"Yeah. What did _you_ guys bring, if I may ask?"

"I have an Aerodactyl, for your information, and Archie has a Dragonite."

"I have a Fearow," Courtney chimes in, fiddling with something on one of her bags.

"I have a Golurk!" Matt says cheerfully.

"I still don't see how that's necessary," Tabitha says to Matt, and then, "I have a Tropius, anyway." Everyone gives him a look of confusion. Tabitha sighs. "I was in Fortree one time and she started following me around, okay?"

"Aww, what's her name?" Shelly asks. Tabitha sighs again.

"Her…her name's Phi Phi."

"That's adorable!" Shelly exclaims, "My Salamence's name is Sally. Shelly and Sally, you know?" Everyone has slight smiles of amusement and happiness on their faces when they board the ship.

—

"Castelia City is definitely not where we want to be right now," Matt says, leaning far off the side of the ship and making Maxie nervous in a sort of parental way that makes him feel old, "Castelia City is always crowded. I'm sure that we'd cause some sort of fuss if we all took off on our Pokemon right in the middle of Castelia."

"Where should we go then, Matt?" Archie asks, ostensibly not worried by how far Matt is leaning off the ship. Maxie wants to hit him and say something like, _These kids are basically our children, Archie, how are you not concerned by this?_ but, really, Shelly, Courtney, Tabitha, and Matt aren't really _that_ much younger than the two of them, and Archie and Maxie might be 'disgustingly in love' as Shelly puts it, but they certainly aren't parents, and Maxie doesn't know how displaying that he experiences any sort of parental urges would make Archie feel.

"Well, Route 4 is north of Castelia, but it's a desert. I think Phi Phi might have some trouble in that environment," Matt says, pouting at Tabitha. Tabitha blushes.

"Phi Phi will be fine! We won't be there for long, and she's tough."

"I'm a bit worried about my Fearow," Courtney says, "he has weak lungs."

"Well, it won't look suspicious if you alone take off with your Fearow in Castelia," Maxie says, "You can get into the air before we cross into Route 4."

"What about Castelia's pollution?" Matt asks.

"Oh, I think that'll be fine for just a short bit. Ro doesn't seem to be bothered by Rustboro's air. I know Castelia City's air is probably more polluted, but I think that if Rustboro's air doesn't bother him at all, then Castelia's air might only bother him a little bit," Courtney says.

—

Everyone is nervous, and little conversation is made once the group of six gets off of the ship into Castelia City. Courtney says that she'll see everyone later at the gate leading to Route 4 and hops onto Ro, quickly flying away before the air can get into Ro's system. The remaining five of them venture into the gate to Route 4.

Once they are in Route 4, the five of them wander a bit away from the route's main path, call their Pokemon out, and climb onto their backs. The Pokemon are a bit bothered by the blowing sand, as their trainers are, but they aren't bothered too severely.

"Honestly, Matt, I want to see your Golurk fly," Archie says. He's heard before that Golurks are able to fly, and he's heard the method in which they do so before, but he's never actually seen one do it.

"Alright, Archie! Ready, Lurlurk?" Lurlurk blasts off into the sky, and everyone can't help but to laugh.

"It's so ridiculous!" Archie says through his laughter.

"Come on, let's not leave Matt and Lurlurk up there looking for Courtney and Ro by themselves. Come on, Sally!" Sally takes off into the air gracefully, seemingly much more so after watching Lurlurk's method of going into the sky.

"Let's go, Phi," Tabitha says softly, patting Phi Phi on the neck gently. She lets out a loving sound, takes a moment to determine how the wind is blowing, and takes off into the sky.

Only Archie, Maxie, and their Pokemon are left now. "Hey, Maxie?" Archie says softly, watching Maxie with a loving look on his face.

"Yes, Archie?"

"I love you." Archie kisses Maxie slowly and sweetly.

"I love you too," Maxie says. He places his hands more firmly on his Aerodactyl's shoulders. "Together?"

"Together," Archie confirms, and, together, they take off into the skies, looking for their companions.

—

"This is harder than I thought it'd be," Archie yells to everyone else.

"They can't cause storms all the time," Shelly yells back, "they move around!" Sally is twisting around through the air, and Shelly is laughing through the ride. Phi Phi seems to want to spin around like Sally does too, but she can't quite seem to get her body to move like Sally's does.

"There!" Tabitha yells a few minutes later, "Where's that, Matt?" Matt looks at the storm that Tabitha is pointing to.

"That's Route 11!" Matt yells back. Soon, the six of them are urging their Pokemon to the location as quickly as they can.

—

Upon landing, Maxie urges all of them to be quiet. "We don't want to startle him," Maxie whispers.

"Let's look for him," Archie whispers, and everyone goes off to look for Tornadus or Thundurus, whichever one has caused this particular storm.

Archie is the one to find Thundurus. "Thundurus," He calls gently. The Pokemon whirls around and glares at him, and suddenly, Archie is afraid. "Thundurus," He says again, this time his voice wavering some, "we're trying to better the world for Pokemon and for people, would you like to come along?"

At this point, everyone has noticed that Archie is interacting with Thundurus, and though some of them had crept forward at first, seeing the cold hard glare that Thundurus is giving Archie, they now stand completely frozen, watching.

It is so, so suddenly that Thundurus's tail whips away from his body and a bolt of lightning runs through it, across the air, and into Archie. With this, Thundurus roars and flys away from Route 11.

A number of screams sound at the same time. Maxie runs faster than he can ever remember running in his life to Archie's side, falling to the ground beside him immediately. Shelly, Courtney, Tabitha, and Matt stand over him in shock and fear.

"Oh Arceus, oh Arceus, no, he's not breathing," Maxie says, pressing at Archie's chest and feeling panic jolting through all of his body. His hands are shaking.

* * *

Ooo, cliffhanger.

You know that Shelly entered Sally into contests all the time as a teenager.

Speaking of that: Archie and Maxie are the only ones who actually went out and _got_ Pokemon (Maxie had some Old Amber because he is a rock loving nerd [much like Steven Stone] and poor Archie had to train a little Dratini he found into a big Dragonite in a very small amount of time). Shelly's had Sally for a pretty long time (which is kind of obvious), Courtney's had Ro since she found him abandoned near Mt. Chimney as a Spearow (which is why he has weak lungs), Matt and Lurlurk are buddies for life, and Tabitha and Phi Phi's story is revealed in story.


	6. Chapter 6

Away from Route 11, where Archie lies cold on the ground and his group of friends gather around him in horror, Thundurus flies at lightning speed, wind whizzing beside him as he cuts through the air. A loud roar bursts through Thundurus's hearing range, and suddenly, Tornadus is there too, ramming into Thundurus's side and sending him spinning down through the air.

Thundurus roars in rage and regains his balance, sending a burst of lightning through his hands toward Tornadus; it misses and strikes down somewhere in Unova, no doubt causing at least some sort of inconvenience to someone. A sharp jolt of wind flings Thundurus sideways, and another bolt of lightning hits its target this time, electrifying Tornadus and causing him to call out in pain.

In his hidden sanctuary, Landorus stirs.

—

Maxie is completely unaware of what he's doing. The only thing that's processing through Maxie's mind is _Archie_, there motionless and _not breathing_ on the ground. He's crying, he's trying to scream or talk or _something_, Bui is yapping and running around in circles and _panicking_, Shaymin is making small noises of distress, and the rain and lightning around him has become incredibly harsh, but it's all far away to him; he's hardly aware that it's happening. Then, yipping, Shaymin hops off of Maxie's shoulders and onto Archie. Maxie is vaguely aware of someone putting their hands on his shoulders too, saying, "Shaymin will help, Maxie, _Shaymin will help_," but the words come far from registering in his jumbled train of thought.

Shaymin places its tiny paws onto Archie's chest, closes its eyes, and sends a burst of power through Archie's body. Underneath Shaymin's paws, a scar taking the shape of a flower appears, and, also, Archie's heart starts to beat again. Shaymin barks, bounces around, and rubs its face against Archie's in happiness.

"Maxie, look!" Someone says, and when Maxie does, he sees Archie coughing a little bit and starting to open his eyes.

"Archie? Archie!" Maxie says.

"Maxie?" Archie asks in a weak, hoarse voice, "what…what's going on? What happened?"

"Never _ever_ do that to me ever again!" Maxie wraps his arms around Archie and places his ear against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. "I thought you were dead," Maxie says quietly.

"I don't mean to interrupt this," Tabitha says, "but it's kind of storming. Badly."

"Do you think you can sit up, Archie?" Maxie asks. Archie nods, so Maxie helps him into a sitting position. Archie's chest feels like it's been struck with lightning (which is, actually, what happened), but he still feels the need to sit up, pain or not.

"Should one of us fly up into the sky to see what's going on?" Courtney asks.

"I'll go," Shelly says, "electric type isn't very effective against dragon type." Shelly calls Sally out of her Pokeball, and then, the two of them take off into the sky.

"Was I dead?" Archie asks softly once Shelly and Sally have gone. Maxie just nods, not quite able or willing to let the words come from his mouth.

As they wait, Bui and Shaymin cuddle up to Archie and Maxie, afraid and dazed by recent events. Maxie takes turns running his hand over each of their heads, as his other arm is wrapped very firmly around Archie, and Archie is having enough trouble sitting up, let alone using his arms.

It takes Shelly entirely too long to get back. Of course, no one sitting huddled together and afraid on Route 11 knows how long it takes for her to get back. For them, time is passing at a strange, lethargic pace, and everything is slow. Shelly and Sally's trip off into the skies seems to take months.

Finally, _finally_, Shelly and Sally come back. Shelly is soaked to the bone, and her eyes are filled with terror. "Tornadus and Thundurus!" Shelly yells before she and Sally even reach the ground, "They're fighting!"

"They're fighting?" Tabitha asks, casting his eyes up to the sky, looking panicked.

"Landorus! We need to find Landorus!" Shelly hops off of Sally almost before they land; she runs her hands through her hair and casts a desperate look up to the sky, feeling more and more dread with every angry, gray cloud she sees. "Lightning bolts," Shelly says, talking loudly both so that she is heard over the din and because she just cannot bring everything she is feeling into a softly spoken tone, "Thundurus is sending off lightning bolts. People are going to get hurt if they haven't been already; we have to _go_!" Shelly spends no time waiting for responses; she hops right back onto Sally and flies toward the Abundant Shrine.

"Wait, Shelly," Tabitha calls, "where are you going?" Shelly does not hear and would not feel that she would have time for the question anyway. "Where is she going?" Tabitha asks the group.

"The Abundant Shrine," Maxie says, "Everything…everything we've looked at says that Landorus will not appear without both Tornadus _and_ Thundurus , but everything we've looked at also says that, when Tornadus and Thundurus fought years and years ago, that Landorus appeared and stopped them. I don't know…I don't know what Landorus will do."

"We have to go with her," Matt says, and Courtney nods.

"I…I can't," Maxie says, a light blush dusting his cheeks, "I have to stay here with Archie."

"No, you don't. Maxie, I promise you, I'm fine. I can watch over Bui and Shaymin while you guys are gone."

"Archie—"

"We don't have time for this!" Courtney exclaims, "Tabitha, Matt, _we're_ going. Maxie, Archie, sort this out. You know where we'll be if you decide to come along, Maxie." With that, Courtney calls Ro out of his Pokeball and flies away on his back, steering him in the direction that Shelly and Sally went. Matt and Tabitha only have to glance at each other briefly before they call their Pokemon out of their Pokeballs and follow after her.

"I have to get you out of this storm at least, you stubborn man," Maxie says before Archie gets the chance to say anything. "How much am I going to hurt you if I move you?"

"That depends. How much are you gonna move me?"

"I want to move you onto your Dragonite so I can take you somewhere safe and dry." Archie hisses.

"That'll hurt, but…it has to be done."

—

"Where the Hell did she go?" Courtney calls out in anger. Though her hair is short and bobbed, she still is not immune from the effects that a storm such as the one currently occurring has on hair; her bangs stick against her face and fall into her eyes, no matter how much she shakes her head. "She doesn't have a map! She's never been to Unova before this! How the Hell would she know where to go?" Courtney continues.

"She got a good head start on us," Matt calls to Courtney, "don't worry too much about her!"

Courtney knows that Matt is probably right, but she can't help but to not be terribly consoled by his words.

—

Maxie takes Archie to Opelucid City and checks him into a little motel in the city. He helps him onto the bed in the room and takes off his shirt to examine his injuries. "Oh," Maxie says softly, looking at the flower shaped scar that Shaymin had made healing Archie. Maxie also discovers, examining Archie, that there are no crisscrossing scars one would expect to see on someone struck by lightning. Maxie figures that it must be Shaymin's doing.

"How are my injuries, doc?" Archie asks, "Or are you just coping a little feel?"

"Shut _up_, Archie. And you seem to be alright. You'll just probably be in pain for a while. Shaymin's cut out for dealing with flowers and such after all, not people."

"I think that Shaymin is fully qualified to take care of me, then, while you're away."

"You can hardly _stand_, Archie. I can't leave!"

"Everyone could really use your help, Maxie."

"But, I…I don't want to leave you."

"Hey, Maxie," Archie sticks a hand out (his arms shaking at the motion) and runs a finger across Maxie's cheek, "if I can't be there, then you be there for me, okay? You are my better half, after all."

"Archie, you _sap_." Maxie sighs, "Alright. I'll go. Let me do a few more things here, though, first."

Maxie helps Archie into some soft, dry, comfortable clothes, lies some of their things out in positions that will be easy for Archie to reach, and calls out all of Archie's Pokemon (aside from his Sharpedo, since the only place that he might be able to inhabit would be the room's bathtub) to keep him company. Maxie gives Archie a kiss.

"I love you, Archie."

"I love you too, Maxie. Now, go, help everyone else find Landorus." Archie makes a small, contained shooing motion with his hands and Maxie smiles at him before leaving.


	7. Chapter 7

I'm sorry that this took so long! A lot of this fic was written over Winter Break, which is why I was able to update so quickly. Now that I'm back to school, I'm afraid that updates will probably come a little slower, like this one.

* * *

Shelly and Sally are the first to reach the Abundant Shrine. Once they land, a soaked man rushes to them, and asks, "Are you here for Landorus?"

"Yes!" Shelly answers, "My friends should be here soon too; they're going to help me!"

"Do you know what brought this on?" The man asks. Shelly tells him about her and her friends' ambitions, feeling the weight of her guilt heavily as she tells this stranger about everything that has happened to her recently.

It's not very long after Shelly has finished her story that Courtney, Tabitha, and Matt arrive. "Shelly!" Matt shouts, "Have you been here for too long?"

"No, I just…" Shelly looks at the man she'd previously been talking to, "how can we get Landorus to come out of the shrine?"

"Landorus is only supposed to come out of the shrine if both Tornadus and Thundurus get close enough to awaken him. If you lure the two of them here, I think, Landorus would awaken."

"Shit," Tabitha says. Then, after a pause, he says, "Maxie's not here yet. We could try to call him, and if he's on his way, we could see if he could start the quest to guide Tornadus and Thundurus here."

"Maxie wouldn't have fucking service if he's flying right now. And I doubt we have service here either," Courtney spits out, pacing and running her fingers through her damp hair.

"Fuck it," Shelly says, loudly, "Sir, if a man with bright red hair comes by here, can you tell him that we went off to try to get Tornadus and Thundurus over here?" The man says that he can, and Shelly, Courtney, Tabitha, and Matt leave the Abundant Shrine just as quickly as they had come to it.

—

Shelly, Courtney, Tabitha, and Matt stay close together in the sky. Occasionally, one or two of them breaks away from the group to investigate a suspicious looking patch of storm, but the separations never last for long. Tornadus and Thundurus prove to be much more difficult to find in the storm than the four of them had anticipated, and they all let out a collective sigh of relief when they finally do find the two Pokemon.

Together, the four of them swoop down on their Pokemon to where Tornadus and Thundurus are fighting. "What do we do now?" Tabitha yells at everyone else.

"Lurlurk, use Hyper Beam!" Matt calls out. A beam of light strikes Tornadus in the side, sending him whizzing down through the air.

"What the _Hell_, Matt?" Shelly shrieks.

Tornadus comes up from wherever he had fallen down to in little time at all, and he comes up _angry_. "Everyone, _run_!" Matt and Lurlurk take off as fast as they can, and everyone else follows after them quickly, not eager to be confronted by an angry Tornadus and an angry Thundurus. Several choruses of Shelly, Courtney, and Tabitha's situational distaste for Matt come up as the four of them flee.

As Courtney, Matt, Tabitha, and Shelly hunt down Tornadus and Thundurus, Maxie has just landed at the Abundant Shrine. He sees the man that his four companions had found before and calls out to him.

"Excuse me, sir! Have you seen—"

"I know who you are," The man says before Maxie can finish his sentence, "your friends were here a little while ago. They went off to try to lure Tornadus and Thundurus here so that they can awaken Landorus."

"Should I…do you think I should go look for them?" Maxie asks.

"I don't think so. They only told me to tell you where they'd gone. I think that you should stay here and help prepare for when Tornadus and Thundurus get here."

The two of them have not been working for very long on preparing the shrine when Courtney, Tabitha, Shelly, and Matt arrive, yelling as their Pokemon fly as fast as they can. Tornadus and Thundurus flank them, and no chance arises for questions before Landorus bursts out of the Abundant Shrine and faces Tornadus and Thundurus.

Matt and Lurlurk slam into the ground with so much force that they make a hole in the Earth, but the others manage to stop their Pokemon soon enough that they can land at least somewhat gracefully.

Everyone (excluding Matt and Lurlurk and then including them once they manage to pull themselves out of the ground) looks to the sky and watches as the three Forces of Nature fight each other. Landorus seems to have the situation completely under control; Tornadus and Thundurus seem to only fight against him lightly, seeming to know that the fight had been over before it even started. After only a few minutes, Tornadus and Thundurus have stopped sending bursts of wind and bolts of lightning toward Landorus and now have particularly guilty looks cast on their faces. Landorus roars at both of them.

With another roar, Landorus knocks his tail against Tornadus and then Thundurus; the two are sent off in opposite directions, and Landorus watches for just a bit to make sure that they go off and leave each other alone. Once Landorus has made sure that peace has been reestablished, he flies back into the Abundant Shrine to continue his ever going rest.

"Is everyone alright?" The man that lives close to The Abundant Shrine asks after several moments of silence.

"I think I have a concussion," Matt says.

And, so, after the grand spectacle that the small group has just witnessed has resolved itself, they find themselves leaving under the pretense only of taking Matt to a hospital. No one talks as they fly together; they are all handling the experience in their own way.

—

"Archie, Archie, shut up for a second, how are you?"

"I'm _fine_, Maxie! Tell me about everything!"

"Everything…Landorus stopped everything. Matt has a concussion, but other than that, we're all fine. We're all at a hospital right now."

"Matt has a concussion? Is he okay?"

"He's alright, Archie, but how are _you_? 'I'm fine' is not an acceptable answer."

"I really _am_ doing fine, though, Maxie! All of our Pokemon have been keeping me company. I'm not in as much pain as I was when you last saw me either."

"Good. Well, anyway, we're all here in Undella Town while Matt is in the hospital. The doctors said that they want to watch him for a day, and then he can leave. I hope to see you soon. I also hope to go back to Hoenn soon; that would be very nice because I'm _very_ tired."

"Hmm, I hope to see you soon too. Now that I'm not in as much pain as I was, I'm _really_ excited to see you." Maxie can practically hear Archie's smirk.

"Oh, _stop_ it. I'm in public." From their positions seated near Maxie, Shelly, Tabitha, and Courtney turn to give each other vaguely disgusted looks.

"That never stopped you before. Remember when we fucked in our old team's lobby?" Maxie smiles a bit.

"Ah, yes. Good times. _You_ still need to get some rest, though." From the other side of the line, Archie lets out a long, drawn out sigh.

"You're too responsible. Well, you probably need to get back to everyone, so I'll stop trying to seduce you over the phone. Love you."

"I love you too, Archie."

Once Maxie has hung up the phone, Shelly is giving him an incredibly smug look and Courtney and Tabitha are pretending to be incredibly interested in the cushioning on the seats they're sitting in. Maxie flips Shelly off, and she giggles.

* * *

I tried to be kind of vague with my description of a concussion because I've never had one.


	8. Chapter 8

Yeeaahhh, I got wrapped up with school work. Sorry, everyone! I hope you enjoy this chapter, anyway.

* * *

For that night, Maxie, Shelly, Tabitha, and Courtney get a hotel room and squeeze themselves uncomfortably into the two beds. Sometime in the middle of the night, though, Maxie slips out of bed and heads out of the hotel. Maxie thinks that none of his roommates notice him leaving, but Shelly, having been kept awake by Courtney kicking her in her sleep, notices, and she slips out of bed too to follow Maxie.

Maxie had noticed, walking through town the day that they had got there, that there was a small jewelry shop in the middle of town. What Maxie doesn't anticipate, however, is the fact that most small shops aren't open in the late hours of the night.

"Did you really think that this store would be open right now?" Maxie jumps, and Shelly holds up a hand to her mouth to hide her grin.

"Shelly! Fuck! I thought you were asleep!"

"Nah," Shelly says, "Courtney kicks in her sleep, so I couldn't sleep. What are _you_ doing visiting a jewelry shop at such a late hour, though?" Maxie's face turns bright red.

"Listen Shelly," Maxie says after clearing his throat a bit, "let's just…forget that this happened, okay?"

Shelly is absolutely not okay with just forgetting that this has happened.

"You know, Maxie," She says, "in some circles, a person in a long term relationship like you sneaking over to a jewelry store in the middle of the night might lead one to believe that you're thinking about proposing." Maxie makes a noise that is definitely _not_ a squeak and covers his face with his hands.

"…Don't tell him," Maxie finally says, quietly.

"Maxie! If you want to get a ring to propose to Archie, why not make one? It'll be really special then."

"How am I supposed to _make_ a ring?"

"I know a few things about it. My boss and his son kind of have a thing for rocks. I've learned a few things being around them. Come to think of it, Courtney might know some stuff about ring making too." Shelly pauses for a moment, "I think Archie would like sapphires."

"I think…I think that he would like sapphires too…."

"Why don't we worry about all of this when we get back to Hoenn, though? And, _besides_, we're picking up Matt tomorrow and going to get that lucky boyfriend of yours too; we need to get some sleep. Let's go back to the hotel."

Matt's doctor looks, reasonably, a bit nervous when Matt's whole horde of friends with tattered clothing and scratches all across their bodies comes to pick him up from the hospital. "How exactly are you planning to transport Matt to wherever he'd like to go if he is released?" The doctor asks.

Before anyone else has the chance to tell the doctor that they're planning on flying him over multiple regions in a fairly short time period, Tabitha says, "Is traveling by train too much stimulation for him?"

The doctor considers Unova's train system for a moment, "Hmm…no, I don't think so. However, his head will have to be propped in a certain way so that none of the bumps that occur during the train ride cause any further damage."

"I can handle that," Tabitha says, "would you show me how to prop his head?" The doctor produces a pillow from one of the cabinets in the room and shows Tabitha how to prop Matt's head for the train ride. Everyone talks for a bit more and some paperwork is taken care of before Matt is discharged.

"Were you serious about riding with Matt on one of Unova's trains?" Courtney asks.

"Yeah. I don't want him to die, after all. Plus I know that Maxie is eager to be getting back to a certain someone, and I don't want to make him wait to," Tabitha puts the back of his hand to his forehead, "see the love of his life once more." Matt, Courtney, and Shelly snicker.

"Hey!" Maxie says, bright red, "why do you all make fun of me far more than each other?"

"Because your sappy romance with Archie is cute," Shelly tells him. Maxie sighs.

Later on, Tabitha and Matt board a train, and soon after, the others call their Pokemon out and take off to the skies with them. "Where did you take Archie?" Shelly calls out to Maxie.

"I took him to Opelucid City!" Maxie calls back, "Just follow me; I know where it is!"

Once the three of them land in Opelucid City, Courtney and Shelly are forced to run through the city, as Maxie starts running as soon as his Aerodactyl is back in his Pokeball. Maxie runs through the hotel (prompting the hotel's staff to give him some strange looks), and Courtney and Shelly speed walk behind him. When Maxie finally makes it to Archie's room, he fumbles through his pockets until he finds the key that he had taken to the room and jams it into the keyhole rather sloppily.

Archie is lying in bed, petting Bui's head when the door opens and Maxie rushes in. Archie has hardly any time to feel any sort of shock or fear before Maxie jumps onto the bed and asks, hurriedly, "How are you feeling, Archie?"

Archie doesn't answer Maxie. Instead, he blinks a few times and then kisses him, cupping both of his cheeks with his hands. Shelly and Courtney come into the room while Archie and Maxie are kissing and slowly back out. Courtney hands Shelly one-hundred Pokedollars once they're outside of the room. "Told ya," Shelly says.

"Maxie, Maxie," Archie says after quite a bit of kissing, "come on, let's let everyone else come and see me too."

"How are you feeling, though, Archie?"

"Maxie, I'm alright. I just moved my hands all the way over to your face, didn't I?"

"What hurts?" Archie sighs.

"My chest still hurts if I move around a lot, but other than that I'm fine, really, Maxie." Maxie gives Archie a quick look over and then nods. Reluctantly, he leaves the room to go find Shelly and Courtney, walking backwards for a good portion of the way. _Nerd_, Archie thinks as he watches him.

When Shelly and Courtney come into Archie's room, Shelly is quick to give Archie a gentle hug. Courtney, on the other hand, who is less comfortable with physical affection, simply smiles and waves; Archie returns the gesture. "Where are Matt and Tabitha?" Archie asks.

"Oh, yeah, since Matt got a concussion we decided to not take him along on our flight. He and Tabitha are taking a train across Unova. We'll meet them at Castelia City so we can all go back to Hoenn."

"Back to Hoenn," Courtney says quietly, though everyone can hear her, "doesn't that sound nice?"

"It does," Archie says, "it does."


	9. Chapter 9

Yeah, I'm really sorry about how long this took. I had a lot of stuff come up. I hope you enjoy, though!

* * *

Going back to Hoenn makes everyone feel relieved. Matt picks up every single member of their little group, though he is rather gentle with Archie, minding his injuries. "I'd pick you all up too if I wasn't afraid that my chest might explode," Archie tells everyone with a smile. He settles for giving everyone a hug and giving Maxie a kiss.

Though they all want to spend more time milling around and just generally celebrating the fact that they are all alive and well after their fiasco, Shelly and Courtney have to go back to work, and they dejectedly tell everyone so. More hugs are exchanged, and Shelly and Courtney mount their respective Pokemon and fly back to Rustboro City.

Archie, Maxie, Matt, and Tabitha do mill around for a while. Eventually, though, the four of them agree on going home. They say their goodbyes and part ways. Maxie keeps a keen eye on Archie through the entire flight that they take back to their secret base. Archie seems alright, for which Maxie is very thankful.

It's dark by the time Archie and Maxie make it home. At the sight of the place that she has come to know as home, Bui lets out an excited yip, hops off of Archie's shoulders, and tumbles inside. Shaymin lets out a noise of contentment as well, but it does not jump off of Maxie's shoulders. Archie and Maxie exchange glances; they both know that they will have to take Shaymin back to the Flower Paradise soon. Still, both of them wordlessly decide to deal with that problem another day and duck into the little secret base that they've come to label as their home.

It had been easy for Archie and Maxie to forget how dark their little cut out of a rock slab gets at night. Maxie calls out his Camerupt then feels around in the dark for one of their candles. Once he finds one, he holds it out to his Camerupt and lets him light it. Archie and Maxie then go around lighting their other candles with the flame they already have.

"I missed being home," Archie says, sighing and collapsing onto their bed. Maxie lies down beside him and together they let their land dwelling Pokemon out of their Pokeballs. The two of them fall asleep just like that, most of their Pokemon clambering onto the bed with them.

—

Early in the morning before Archie and Maxie go off on their journey to take Shaymin back to the Flower Paradise, Maxie gets a call. He picks up his phone, and, once he confirms that it's him on the line, is greeted with a very loud, "HAVE YOU PROPOSED YET?" from Shelly. It takes a good portion of Maxie's willpower not to shriek.

"No, now _goodbye_, Shelly," Maxie says quickly, hanging up.

"What was that all about?" Archie asks.

"Nothing," Maxie responds, "let's take Shaymin home." Archie gives Maxie a look, but he doesn't press any further.

—

Shaymin is visibly excited when it and its two companions reach the Flower Paradise. Immediately, it creates a large number of flowers on the already flower-covered landscape. Shaymin leaps off of Maxie's shoulders and runs up to its usual perch. Shaymin yaps at Maxie and Archie, its happiness evident in every aspect of its actions.

"Bye Shaymin," Archie calls, waving his arms above his head and smiling. Bui, after holding on tightly after Archie's waving, yaps at Shaymin, and Shaymin yaps back.

"Yes, goodbye Shaymin, we'll try to come and visit," Maxie says, waving at the small Pokemon. Neither are particularly looking forward to the trip back, but they are both happy to see Shaymin back at its home.

However, even though Archie regards their trip back as just that, Maxie has other plans in mind. Both of them had agreed to pass through certain towns so that they would get to see their friends, but Maxie has another reason—one that Archie doesn't know about—for wanting to go to Rusboro too.

—

Archie and Maxie go to see Matt and Tabitha first after arriving back in Hoenn. They're both doing fine; Tabitha is going to college and Matt is working, and they're both together in Mauville. They don't think that Archie and Maxie see when Matt kisses Tabitha's cheek as they leave, but they do. Archie and Maxie smile at each other.

The next significant place that Archie and Maxie stop in is Rustboro, and Maxie is terrified. He's terrified because the Devon Company is in Rustboro, and that's where Maxie is planning to talk to Mr. Stone about making engagement rings. Maxie goes through several cycles of maintaining his composure and losing it before, finally, Archie asks him if he's okay.

"I am quite alright, Archie," Maxie tells him, and then he focuses all of his attention and effort on not freaking out over his plans.

—

Courtney somehow gets sucked into Maxie's plan as well, which can be accredited entirely to Shelly. Archie and Maxie reach Rustboro around the time that Shelly and Courtney get off of work, so they wait for a few minutes outside of the Devon building. Once Shelly and Courtney get off of work, Shelly manages to shove Archie and Courtney off somewhere else as she drags Maxie inside.

"Come on," Shelly says, dragging Maxie along by the arm and walking quickly, "you know how unsociable Courtney is; they'll be back soon." Shelly lead Maxie straight up to her boss's room. Mr. Stone knows who Maxie is immediately, and Maxie can't help but to feel a little out of place.

Maxie does ease into the conversation, though. Once they start to talk about gems and rings, Maxie is very focused and interested.

With a few inputs from Shelly, Maxie lays out his ideas for the rings with Mr. Stone.

"This is completely doable," Mr. Stone says, "actually, I think it'll be rather fun too. I haven't crafted something by hand in quite a long time! I can help you craft the ring completely free of charge as long as you provide the materials." Maxie nods and Mr. Stone gets up to make a copy of the plans they have laid out. He gives one of the sheets to Maxie and keeps one for himself. He files it away in one of the drawers in his desk.

Shelly and Maxie leave the Devon building to find a sheepish looking Courtney and a suspicious looking Archie waiting outside. "I _definitely_ know that you're up to something," Archie tells Maxie, pushing at his chest lightly.

"He's planning nothing at all," Shelly says, "we need to catch up though, Archie. How are you?" Archie looks between Maxie, Shelly, and Courtney a few times before shaking his head.

"Okay, first of all, he's definitely planning something, _and_ you're helping. Secondly, I'm fine, how are you?" The four of them pick a set of benches to sit on while they talk. For most of the time while they sit, Maxie is thinking about how much money he and Archie have and which ways he should go about buying gemstones and metal for his and Archie's rings. Archie notices that Maxie's mind is wandering, but he figures that he'll find out what everything Maxie's doing is about sooner or later.

Archie and Maxie set off for their secret base while Maxie continues to think about means of getting everything he needs for his plan.

"Whatever you're up to better be pretty damn good," Archie tells Maxie, pouting indignantly.

"I'm not planning anything, Archie," Maxie tells him, a smirk making its way onto his face. Archie snorts and rolls his eyes.


	10. Chapter 10

I had a lot of fun with this chapter. I hope you enjoy it too.

* * *

Maxie has a quick temper. That's something that anyone who has more than simply a professional relationship with him (and even then, in that case, one might know anyway) would know. And while Maxie is usually quite prone to yelling or snapping at people ("Like _me_," Archie might say), Maxie can't exactly snap at the current CEO of the Devon company. The real cause of Maxie's anger is the ring laid out in front of him, but yelling at the ring would be a social blunder as well.

"_Concentrate_, Maxie," Mr. Stone tells him, "you can do it." This just makes Maxie want to ram his jewel cutting tool into his eyeball even more, but if he was actually calm, he would consider it a nice sentiment. Maxie looks at the sketch he and Mr. Stone had created of the ring he wants, sighs, and goes back to his work.

Maxie looks at the ruby and hacks a section of it off at an angle. It certainly doesn't look _good_ by any means, but Maxie likes to think that it doesn't look _bad_ either and maybe the fact that he's carving this ruby himself adds some sort of redeeming factor to it. _Who am I fucking kidding? Archie is going to laugh at me._

After giving the ruby a few more cuts, Maxie runs his thumb across it. It's rather rough, but, somehow, Maxie thinks it's sort of charming in a strange way. "Would you like me to teach you how to engrave metal?" Mr. Stone asks. Maxie nods.

"You take _this_ tool," Mr. Stone rummages around through one of the drawers on his desk and then holds up a pointed tool, "and run it along the metal, like so," Mr. Stone runs the tool down a piece of metal he has out for demonstration with a certain delicacy and precision that Maxie knows he'll never have. Maxie takes note of the method Mr. Stone uses to add more depth to the letters he carves. "Try it."

Mr. Stone hands Maxie the tool and the practice metal. The first letter that Maxie tries to create looks more like part of a sigil than anything else. "Try just scraping the metal a bit first; that'll give you a feel for how the letter making process works." Maxie makes a few circles and squiggles, practicing fleshing out some of his nonsense marks as well. After this, he tries to write some letters. Then he tries again. And again. And again.

"I want them to be…" Perfect? Well, _yes_, but Maxie also knows that that's unrealistic, "good? Legible?" Maxie questions to no one except Mr. Stone, who isn't really the target of his questions anyway. Maxie practices writing out the exact words he wants to be on the rings over and over again, striving for that good or legible or whatever it is Maxie is trying for.

At some point during Maxie's obsessive word carving, Mr. Stone says Maxie's name to catch his attention. Maxie looks up, carving tool held tight in his hand. "You have almost no more room left on that piece of scrap metal," Mr. Stone tells him. Maxie takes a closer look at the metal and realizes that Mr. Stone is right. He sets the carving tool down gently. "Also," Mr. Stone continues, "it's getting late. That love of yours must miss you."

"What time _is_ it?" Maxie questions, checking his watch. His face pales when he sees that it's nearing six o'clock. "I really didn't mean to stay here for so long, Mr. Stone! Thank you for having me. Archie is gonna bash my head in." Maxie helps Mr. Stone clean up the mess they've been making over his desk and dashes out. Mr. Stone shakes his head and thinks back to when he crafted his first ring.

Maxie calls Archie as soon as he's outside of the Devon building. "Um, hello, Archie," Maxie starts once he's been greeted, "I'm about to start making my way home now, so it'll probably be dark by the time I make it home. I just thought you should know."

Archie's response to this information from Maxie is a loud, "What the fuck were you _doing_, Maxie? You told me you were gonna be out for 'just a bit'! A few hours is not '_just a bit_'!"

"I lost track of time, Archie, I—"

"Oh, fuck off, Maxie." Archie hangs up.

"Rude," Maxie mumbles under his breath as he calls his Aerodactyl out of his Pokeball.

—

If Maxie didn't know that this whole ordeal would be worth it in the end, he would be well over it by now. Archie is now always at least vaguely disgruntled, and Maxie wants to just tell him about what he's doing. Maxie spends most of his time working on the rings staring at them with malice. One of them is finished (even if Maxie does wince a little every time he looks at it), and Maxie is _so close_ to finishing the second one too. Shelly has taken to hanging around in Mr. Stone's office and cheering him on. Maxie has told her more than once to get out.

Though Maxie might not be the proudest of his craftsmanship on the rings, one thing that he does pride himself on is the words engraved on the rings. The first one, Archie's ring, says, "Earthquakes along fault lines couldn't tear me away from you." The second one is in the process of saying, "My love for you is as unwavering as the ocean," but it currently says, "My love for you is as u." Maxie grumbles as he fleshes out the 'u'.

Several days later, the ring is complete. As Mr. Stone congratulates him, Maxie stares down at the ring in a vague sort of disbelief. "I'm really gonna propose to him now, aren't I?" Maxie says.

"That's right," Mr. Stone claps Maxie on the shoulder, "good luck." It's sounds like a dismissal (Maxie can't imagine that he's been easy to deal with at all), so Maxie gathers all of his belongings and leaves. From a window, once Maxie has exited the building, Shelly calls out, "Did you finish making the rings, Maxie?" Maxie flips her off but confirms her suspicion anyway.

Maxie is fine throughout the entirety of his flight back to his secret base, but, then, as soon as he lands outside of it, Maxie suddenly feels like he can't breathe.

The rings are heavy in Maxie's pocket, and Maxie is suddenly aware of how much it would _hurt_ if Archie was to reject him. "That damn pirate means too much to me," Maxie mutters to himself, his voice shaky. Maxie supposes, though, that how much Archie means to him is the reason why he's gone through all of this trouble anyway.

Taking a deep breath, Maxie ducks into the secret base.

"You're home early today, unlike usual," Archie chastises Maxie once he's inside.

"Archie."

"Did you finally decide that I was more important than whatever 'important business' it is that you're always up to?" Archie isn't looking at Maxie, and he's busying his hands with something else.

"Archie."

"Because I don't care if you don't want to be with me anymore or what_ever_ I just wish you wouldn't _lie_ to me and—"

"_Archie_."

"_What?_"

This is absolutely not the way that Maxie wanted to do this, but of course, _of course_, Archie had to be difficult.

Maxie loves him anyway.

He drops down onto one knee and holds out the ring he had crafted for Archie. Suddenly, it feels like every part of his body is shaking.

"Is _this_ what this was all about?" Archie asks softly. Maxie nods his head. Archie more or less tackles him. "I can't believe you!" Maxie wriggles underneath him, but Archie doesn't move. "I was so…I was so…and you're…." Archie flicks Maxie on the forehead.

"Archie, would you just fucking respond already and, oh, I don't know, _get off of me_ maybe?" Archie lies his forehead against Maxie's chest, and Maxie sighs.

Archie, after a few moments in that position, finally says, "We don't even have a _house_, Maxie."

"What are you getting at?"

"I mean, I would love to marry you for some fucking reason even though you're an ass, but the economic aspect of it isn't really…practical for us, don't you think? But for the idea of it, yeah. Yeah, I'll marry you." Archie kisses him.

At this point, both of their Mightyenas have started to wonder what is going on, and they creep up next to Maxie and Archie and start sniffing at them. Archie and Maxie laugh.

"Before we put these rings on, let me show you a little detail that I worked my ass off over." Maxie holds one of the rings up to Archie's face and taps at the inside of the ring to alert Archie's attention to it.

"'Earthquakes along fault lines couldn't tear me away from you.' …Which one of ours is that one?"

"Yours."

"What does yours say?"

"'My love for you is as unwavering as the ocean.'" Archie snorts.

"Maxie! Those are so cheesy!"

"They are _not_!"

"They absolutely are!" Archie laughs, and Maxie is so carefree and happy in that moment that he can't help but to laugh along.


End file.
